PRESIDENT Aquino enjoys bragging about how the Philippines has improved its image in the world—and takes obvious joy in claiming credit for the change in perception.
In speeches, he rarely passes up the opportunity to boast that the country’s credit rating has gone up under his economic stewardship.
The President so values these credit ratings that he even uses them to justify his insensitive refusal to support measures to lower the tax burden on millions of low- to middle-income earners, who are among the most heavily taxed in Southeast Asia.
But all the bragging in the world will not alter the facts, and the credit ratings merely affect our ability as a nation to repay our debts; they don’t put food on the table.
Nor will Mr. Aquino’s boasting erase the black mark he left on the country’s reputation when the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights recently found that his government’s detention of his political opponent, former President Gloria Arroyo, was arbitrary, illegal and politically motivated.
This week, the administration was trying to put out another kind of fire.
The international audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) ranked the Philippines 127th among 189 economies in terms of ease of paying business taxes, observing that the system of filing taxes here is very complicated and time consuming.
In contrast, our neighbors Malaysia and Thailand ranked 32nd and 62nd, respectively.
In the Philippines, PwC said, a businessman takes 193 hours to pay 36 kinds of fees and taxes per year.
At the same time, the average income tax rate and contributions paid by a Philippine employer is 42.5 percent, or 6 percent higher than the average tax rate in the Asia-Pacific region.
Citing the PwC study, Senator Francis Escudero said the Philippines implements one of the most tedious processes for paying taxes in the world and has the highest income tax rate in Asia.
“The Philippines is just three notches above Sierra Leone and 12 notches above Sudan in the rankings,” Escudero observed. “Where else will you find a country that taxes its people severely and then makes it hard for them to pay?”
Given this President’s fondness for collecting taxes, the senator’s rhetorical question is embarrassing and suggests that under Mr. Aquino’s watch, nothing significant has been done to ease the tax burden or to make it easier for businesses to pay their taxes.
This failure highlights the insensitivity that has become the hallmark of the Aquino administration, and lays bare Mr. Aquino’s lie when he calls the people his “bosses.”